A doctor at a hospital in Ayase, Kanagawa Prefecture, has died due to complications from tuberculosis, prompting the hospital to contact all patients who have seen him over the past two years in a bid to track down any possible secondary infections, hospital officials said Monday.
Hakuryokai Ayase Kosei Hospital plans to provide tests for the roughly 2,600 patients at risk, they said. The TB checkup will be offered free of charge, they added.
The 48-year-old internal medicine doctor was admitted to another hospital on Aug. 5 after vomiting blood at home, they said. He was then transferred to another hospital and diagnosed with TB on Aug. 13. He died Aug. 19 due to a rupture of the pulmonary artery, which is believed to be a very severe symptom of TB, they said.
The infected doctor was seeing patients until the day he was hospitalized, they said.